Lightning Struck, by Miranda Hardy, Quixotic Publishing

Elysia Lovell’s mysterious heritage catches up with her, forcing her to go on the run once again. Grief-stricken and confused by her father’s disappearance, Elysia is led to a new place and discovers a family she never knew existed. Hiding her secret becomes increasingly difficult when her tumultuous emotions threaten to reveal her precarious gift.

Colin Moore is reckless, impulsive, and entrenched in the family business: extorting townspeople and killing Roma. Tucked away in a small town, he didn’t expect a storm to blow in. An exotic new girl shakes his foundation and places him on a dangerous path, one that may get him killed by his own people.

Elysia sees past Colin’s hard shell; Colin’s certain Elysia won’t understand who he really is, but the secrets they keep from one another have perilous consequences. Elysia’s quest for discovery and acceptance presses her to choose between revealing her true nature or letting her family die.

MY REVIEW:

Okay, I finished this book in a day. But had to think about it for a while. With the exception of a few missing words, the story reads well. The cover art is interesting and colorful.

My biggest gripe: the names of the characters. Isn’t it strange that 75% of the characters have the same names as those in the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyers? Sam, only he’s a cook; Colin, only he’s a werewolf, Alice, a fake name Elysia uses, and Kyle, the competing love interest; Bo, the grandfather… I could go on. Seriously, this was a huge turnoff, not because I don’t like the Twilight series, but originality would have been a preference for this particular story. The story itself stands well on its own and deserves better.

With that said, I still enjoyed the story. The ease of reading flowed nicely building to its fascinating conclusion, with the hints of a sequel to follow.

The plot is well structure and the perspectives, written from a first-person POV, were done well with only a few instances of the story jerking oddly all over the place. This was mostly toward the end causing me to read the that part a few times before getting what the author was trying to do.

The theme is fantastic as is the premise. I wanted to read on until I finished the story. Character arcs developed well. I even like this Protagonist. She was mysterious and realistic despite the fantasy edge to the story. In fact, all the characters in the story were written into a believable fashion. Excellent narrative parts introducing setting and character descriptions.

Overall, I would love to see more from this author and can see this book in the hands of a traditional publisher as well.